Newsweek, March 17, 1969 Money Quote: The papers -- and in particular, the States-Item (circulation: 134,707) -- constantly trumpeted Garrison's charges (headlines above). On Feb. 9 The Times-Picayune (circulation: 196,345) ran one story on Charles I. Spiesel, a state witness, who led the jury to the French Quarter in search of a building he contended was the site of a party hosted by Shaw in 1963. It was not until the 28th paragraph on page 10 that readers learned Spiesel be

At the time of the assassination, Guy Banister's was already on a downhill trajectory: Guy Banister's behavior was noted to be violent...

Elmer Renfroe was a gay man who lived in the French Quarter in New Orleans and once, while drunk, told stories to a confidential informant of Aaron Kohn, head of the Metropolitan Crime Commission: The informant spoke again to Renfroe a few days later: Investigators for Clay Shaw spoke to Renfroe in March, 1967: Renfroe was interviewed again in April: It appears that Richard Townley, a local reporter, might have been the confidential informant. What is interesting is the fact

Few people realize just how much power Jim Garrison utilized in his position as District Attorney of the Parish of New Orleans. Milton Brener, in his superb book The Garrison Case , wrote: "By virtue of his office, the District Attorney is potentially the most powerful of the public officials domiciled at Tulane and Broad ... However, until 1962, the full extent of his strength had been convincingly impressed neither upon the community in general, nor upon the politicians the

Sounds like a game of Clue, no? Jack Martin James DiEugenio, in his book Destiny Betrayed, writes: (page 389, see also page 112 for the...

James DiEugenio writing in Probe Magazine of May-June, 1997 writes: "In a Wackenhut interview with Carlos Bringuier (5/9/67), Bringuier...

Here is an excerpt from a memo written by Aaron Kohn, head of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, dated August 10, 1967. He bumped into Ed...

Here are some excerpts from a memo written by Aaron Kohn, head of the Metropolitan Crime Commission of New Orleans, on May 31, 1967. On May 2, 1967 Kohn met with Walter Sheridan, who was in New Orleans working on the NBC documentary on Garrison, who had a question: Hufft [the FBI spelt his name as Huff] had already informed the FBI: Clearly, this fell under the jurisdiction of the FBI as it was a federal crime. But, the FBI was cowed by Garrison, and just wouldn't proceed wi

We all know the scene in Oliver Stone's film JFK in which Guy Banister (Ed Asner) pistol-whips Jack Martin (Jack Lemmon). Later on, Jack...

An important question is whether the FBI knew that Clay Shaw was the elusive Clay Bertrand. Here's an FBI memo from March 2, 1967 that...

Here is a good case study in how Jim Garrison casually lies. In this case, misrepresenting the truth about Perry Russo and Vernon Bundy's...

Charles Ward ran against Jim Garrison In the Democratic Primary for District Attorney in 1969. He had served in the D.A.'s office for a number of years as an Assistant District Attorney. Garrison won the November primary, and served another term as D.A. Here is a transcript of a speech Charles Ward gave to the Young Men's Business Club of Jefferson Parish. Clearly Ward has his biases, but I think this is an important document in terms of understanding Garrison, his office, an

I've already posted Garrison's psychiatric reports from 1951 . Here is a memo that Aaron Kohn, head of the Metropolitan Crime Commission of New Orleans, wrote about Garrison's mental state. By the way, the Metropolitan Crime Commission was a private organization formed in 1952 to investigate corruption within the New Orleans Police Department. You can read more about their history here. Kohn would eventually appeal to the State Government to have Garrison removed. I'll be pos